MLB Baseball: Friday, August 2, 2013 at 7:10 pm (Tropicana Field)

TV: CSN-Bay, SUN

The Tampa Bay Rays and the San Francisco Giants face off on Friday in Tampa Bay for game one of their series.

The Tampa Bay Rays are in a battle on top of the AL East and after gaining the lead, they lost it back to the Red Sox. The Rays are 7-3 in their last 10 games, 35-20 at home this season, and they are in the AL East. As a team, the Rays are hitting .262 with Wil Myers hitting .331, James Loney hitting .316, Ben Zobrist hitting .275, and Evan Longoria hitting .273. The Rays pitching staff has an ERA of 3.76, with the starters at 3.79 and the bullpen at 3.70. For game one against the Giants, the Rays start Chris Archer, who has won his last four starts. For the season Archer has allowed 46 hits and 18 earned runs, while striking out 47 over 67.2 innings for a -3 record and a 2.39 ERA.

Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants are struggling this year and it is looking unlikely that they are going to repeat as World Series Champs. The Giants are 3-7 in their last 10 games, 20-32 on the road this season, and they are one game back in the NL West. As a team the Giants are hitting .262, with Marco Scutaro hitting .315, Buster Posey hitting .309, and Hunter Pence, Brandon Crawford, and Pablo Sandoval all hitting .274. As a team, the Giants pitching staff has an ERA of 4.12 with the starters at 4.61 and the bullpen at 3.23. For game one in Tampa Bay, the Giants start Madison Bumgarner who has been the best pitcher on their staff this season. For the season, Bumgarner has allowed 94 hits and 43 earned runs while striking out 135 over 140 innings for a 10-6 record and a 2.76 ERA.

Tampa Bay is 23-5 in their last 28 games overall, 20-7 in their last 27 interleague games against a team with a losing record, and 7-0 in Archer’s last seven starts. San Francisco is 6-18 in their last 24 game ones of a series, 1-5 against the AL East, and 4-1 in Bumgarner’s last five road starts.

The total in this one is set to the low side but neither of these pitchers give up much and I don’t expect to see much scoring so my free pick is on the under. My stronger play is on the winning side and I will post that strong pick in the Premium Area

Under 7

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